Everybody knows about the CIA--the cloak-and-dagger branch of the U.S.
government. Many fewer are familiar with the National Security Agency,
even though it has been more important to American espionage in recent
years than its better-known counterpart. The NSA is responsible for much
of the intelligence gathering done via technology such as satellites and
the Internet. Its home office in Maryland "contains what is probably the
largest body of secrets ever created."
Little was known about the agency's confidential culture until veteran
journalist James Bamford blew the lid off in 1982 with his bestseller
The Puzzle Palace. Still, much remained in the shadows. In Body of Secrets,
Bamford throws much more light on his subject--and he reveals loads of
shocking information. The story of the U-2 crisis in 1960 is well known,
including President Eisenhower's decision to tell a fib to the public in
order to protect a national-security secret. Bamford takes the story a
disturbing step forward, showing how Eisenhower "went so far as to order
his Cabinet officers to hide his involvement in the scandal even while
under oath. At least one Cabinet member directly lied to the committee,
a fact known to Eisenhower." Even more worrisome is another revelation,
from the Kennedy years: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved
plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S.
government. In the name of anticommunism, they proposed launching a
secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order
to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they
intended to launch against Cuba."

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